I was at home waiting for news from my sister, Eithne Gingerbread, who was supposed to deliver unto the world a new baby today. The child has Eithne's sense of punctuality and thus took a good fortnight to appear on the scene, but finally did so in a whirl of drama this afternoon. Mother and child are doing well, hurray.
While baby Hannah was adjusting to the world, I was trying to get some odds and ends finished. So I'm going to do a series of little blog postettes about my craft fair endeavours. Most of what I'll show you in these posts will end up being donated to a Christmas bazaar in aid of the local children's clinic - as a result, they're quick and economical to make and rely heavily on a certain cuteness factor as a sales technique. Brace yourselves, crafters. Here we go!
Soap Socks
The idea behind these is that, as the soap shrinks with use, the wool felts through rubbing and the use of hot and cold water. I had loads of these finished, but everyone who has seen them so far has bought one or two off me - which is a good sign, but honestly I have to stockpile a little before Advent starts. They look cute. They smell nice. They're cheap to make (I buy the soap at Aldi - no one sees it because it's sewn into the soap). And even a novice knitter like me can make them.
You need:felting wool (I can make 4 or 5 socks from one 50g skein)
and a set of DPNs/straight knitting needles.
(I used a size 5 mm.)
Cast on 20 stitches. Divide over four needles, or knit flat.
Row 1: plain
Row 2: purl
Repeat in stockinette stitch till you have a little tube the length of a bar of soap. Sew up the bottom opening. (If knitted flat, sew up the bottom and side.)
(Wowzers. Knitting patterns are so simple to write, eh?)
Add a label.
Be fancy.
Voilà - or as we say in cyberspace: Waalah!
14 comments:
That's the neatest idea - will be great for exfoliating. :)
That's a really clever idea, great stocking fillers!
Thank you, girls! I've been too frugal and mean to try one myself - haha! - but I spotted the idea ages ago while on the Interwebz and mentally filed it away under "I can do that" :-)
Awesome! I bet i can do it on my bond knit machine will give it a go one of these days thanks!
Welcome Hannah, and congratulations to your sister and her family.
Neat idea :D The soap socks that is, not the baby. Although babies clearly are a good idea. I had four!
I am liking this....looks faster than my scrubbies that are multiplying to stick in pressies for the festive season... The label makes it though. Really nice.
Liz
@ Liz - yes, they're fast. And I'm not a great knitter. Because it's felting yarn, you can work it up quickly on big needles.
@Annie - four babies! You've probably had hundreds of bars of soap go through your fingers over the years!
Thanks for sharing! These look very cute. I might make up some for holiday gifts.
How much do you charge for these?
Hi Audrey,
I donated a basket of these to a charity and they sold them for €3 each. They cost 80c to make - yarn 40c, soap 30-40c. I would adjust your price according to how expensive your soap and yarn are. I could buy yarn on special offer for €2 a skein and got 4 - mostly 5 - socks per skein. You can use expensive soap and then you'd obviously have to charge more. How that compares with US prices I'm afraid I don't know.
I love this pattern. Made 4 yesterday. Am making a bunch in red, pink and white to give for Valentine's Day. Its better for you than candy...
A little late to the party, but better late than never. It seems Baby Hannah and I share a name as well as a birthday, how wonderful.
And I love your soap socks!
Cheers,
Hanneke
They are gorgeous. Can you use a different yarn other than felting yarn? When the soap is finished, do you throw the bag out?
Thanks
Linda
Hello Linda,
You can use cotton, for example, which won't become smaller as the soap is used, but it can be washed and refilled.
The idea is that the bag felts into a smaller felted bag that can be re-used by putting soap scraps into it. I simply use these as scented sachets for my clothes drawers, as the wool retains the smell of the soap really well, so I've never actually felted a bag myself :-) :-)
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